


Deranged

by DarlingV



Category: Murder by Numbers (2002)
Genre: Gen, Power Dynamics, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-19
Updated: 2011-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-26 07:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingV/pseuds/DarlingV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard deranges Justin's world.  Justin doesn't appreciate this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deranged

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't slash, but I'm sure you can read it that way if you squint a bit. Oh, and back away if you're sensitive to unpleasant language!

“Wait, what?” It wasn’t Richard’s most eloquent retort, but the gears in his head had ground to a screeching halt.

“You heard me,” Justin replied emotionlessly, staring into the fire. “The plan’s off.”

Richard tried to digest the statement. Even after hearing it twice his brain refused to make sense of it. “You’re talking about _the_ plan?”

“Is there any other plan?”

“Fuck.”

Justin cautiously turned his head to look at Richard. He had expected anger, not confusion. “Richard?”

“ _Fuck_ ,” the blond reiterated, dropping his head into his hands and acting convincingly disappointed.

That wasn’t right at all. Justin reached over to touch Richard’s shoulder, somewhat afraid to do so but highly disturbed by the other boy’s uncharacteristic behavior. It bothered Justin when he couldn’t predict the actions and reactions of someone he thought he had figured out.

The moment Justin’s fingers brushed the leather of Richard’s jacket, Richard lunged at him. Justin instinctively scrambled in the opposite direction and flinched when Richard managed to seize him. Much to Justin’s surprise, no violence followed—no hand around his neck, no fist, no yelling. Richard simply held him by the shoulders, staring at him as if he had never seen him before in his life.

“Richard?” Justin repeated quietly, making no attempt to escape. This made no sense.

Richard did nothing for several long moments. Finally, he sighed and shoved Justin away. “Get out.”

Justin stumbled to his feet, stunned. “Wait, what?”

“Get out,” Richard said, voice free of anger. “It’s over.” When Justin failed to leave, he looked up at him quizzically. “What?”

“That’s it?”

“What else is there? You said the plan’s off, so get out.”

Justin drew closer to Richard, still reeling from the complete lack of anger from his usually short-tempered peer. “That—but it isn’t…” He stammered to a halt, his command of the English language abandoning him entirely.

“Isn’t what, Pendleton?” Richard replied coolly, rising to stand nose-to-nose with the other boy. “Isn’t what you expected? You expected me to beg you to go through with the plan?”

Justin took a step back. What did he expect? He had expected the expected…

Richard took a step forward to make up for Justin’s retreat. An expression that was somewhere between a smirk and a grimace twisted his sharp features. “You think I care that much about your fucking plan?”

“Our plan,” Justin objected uncertainly.

“ _Your_ plan. You’re the one with all the crazy ideas; I’m the guy who’s supposed to make them happen. You need me.”

Justin stepped back again only to be stopped by Richard’s hands on his jacket. “We were planning it together… we were going to do it together…”

“Not anymore we’re not. Isn’t that right? It’s off, right? You got the message. You know I’m gonna make you do more than just think so you’re pulling out.”

“That’s not it.”

Anger flashed across Richard’s features as he gave Justin a rough shake. “Like hell it’s not! You’re pulling out because you’re a scared little bitch!”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Justin replied, a darkness creeping into his quiet voice.

“You don’t tell me how to fucking talk to you!” Richard roared in response, driving Justin backwards into a wall.

“Let me go.”

“I’ll let you the fuck go when I—“

Richard stopped mid-sentence as Justin kneed him in two of his favorite organs, letting the other seventeen year-old go and doubling over in pain. That was something that he—and Justin—hadn’t anticipated.

Justin watched him, face blank.

“Aw, fuck,” Richard wheezed, collapsing on the old sofa. “Get over here.”

Following Richard’s pained order didn’t sound like the best of ideas, but Justin obeyed regardless. He didn’t know what else to do; there had been too many surprises from Richard and from himself in the past few minutes. Not even his quick mind entirely understood.

As soon as Justin crouched next to him, Richard sat up somewhat, put an arm around Justin’s thin shoulders, and pulled him into a half-hug. The victim of his impromptu hug froze.

“Christ, Justin,” Richard said, laughing a mildly pained laugh and tightening his hold. “Didn’t know you had that in you. Good boy… that’s a good boy.”

Yet again, Justin was baffled. How had Richard gone from disappointment to anger to treating him like a well-behaved puppy? The procession of events since he had called their murderous plan off defied all logical explanation and left him speechless.

Another chuckle—this one slightly maniacal—escaped Richard as he leaned on Justin affectionately. “So, you serious? All this work and planning, shot to hell?”

“No,” Justin’s mouth replied before his mind had the opportunity to consider the question fully. He didn’t think that was what he wanted to say, but his head was still spinning. How had a single statement deranged his world so fully? As much as he outwardly touted the values of undermining law and order, he disliked it when the law and order that he had personally imposed upon the world disappeared. He didn’t want his world to disintegrate like that. “No,” he repeated quietly. “I didn’t mean it.”

Richard tilted his head to gauge Justin’s expression. “So the plan’s on.”

“Yes.”

“No backing out now.”

“No.”

“Okay,” Richard said decisively. “Let’s derange the world.”

Justin nodded as his private world became secure once more.


End file.
